On October 30,I wrote a post titled
The Three Primary Responsibilities of Every Leader.
I wrote about an organization www.LDNGlobal.com that I am beginning to work with which focuses on developing leaders around the world. The premise is that every Christian leader, as well as leaders in the market-place have three primary responsibilities—Lead, Develop and Care. Most everything a good leader does would fall into one of these three categories.
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The man who originated the concepts of Lead, Develop, Care went home to be with Jesus on Thanksgiving Day this year. He was 78. His legacy is enormous and beyond calculating this side of heaven.
Paul Stanley was a leader of leaders. He graduated West Point, served in Viet Nam and was awarded numerous commendations. At the end of his military service, Paul had the opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. and a teaching position at West Point, but he chose instead to join the Navigators and spend the rest of his life pouring into leaders.
I was one of those leaders Paul invested in while Susan and I lived and worked in Colorado Springs (the headquarters for the Navigators) for four years. I had the joy of a Face Time phone call with him a few years before he passed. I will cherish that call for the rest of my life. I expressed what his investment had meant to me.
A friend of mine sent me a link to a video of Paul’s memorial service. When you go to YouTube for the video, it pops in toward the end. You can scroll back to the start and watch.
It’s long but totally inspiring and worth the time; especially if you personally knew Paul and were impacted by him in some way. I believe you will be deeply touched. As I watched numerous people share the impact Paul had on their lives (including his wife Phyllis, his four kids and a few of the grand kids) I was on the verge of tears a few times; thankful that I was one of those in whom he chose to invest.
One of the men, who was a very close friend Paul’s, shared at the memorial service that Paul had a prayer pasted in his Bible for quite a number of years. Shortly before his death, Paul took the prayer from his Bible and gave it to this man. I typed up the prayer and am in the process of memorizing it and praying it for myself. I’m deeply confident it will influence my life for however many more years I might have.
Lord, I renounce my desire for human praise, for the approval of my peers, the need for public recognition. I deliberately put these aside today—content to hear your whisper, well done my faithful servant.
It’s what author Os Guinness called, “Living for an audience of one.” It was President Harry Truman who said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” If I could change this up a bit I’d say, It’s wonderful to see what God can do through a leader who doesn’t care who gets the credit. I sincerely believe that Paul Stanley was that kind of leader and this prayer truly reflects that.
As I have been meditating on this short but heartfelt prayer I gained yet more insight into Paul’s heart and why he was so greatly used by God. I’ve been asking myself what would happen if Christian leaders all over the globe would pray this prayer (and mean it) every day for the rest of their lives?
Fellow leader, will you join me in genuinely praying this prayer for yourself daily from this day forward? If your answer is yes, I’d love to have you leave a comment to that effect.
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